My Clowns are Dead, WHY????

[tbrod]

I have had a couple clowns in my tank for over 6 months now, I put another one in that was in the tank for only 2-3 days, it got moved to another and noticed it was shedding its skin. Now I noticed yesterday that both of mine were also shedding thier skin, Well, I woke up this morning to crying kids telling me that Nemo and Marlin are both Dead. I am guessing from doing a little reading that this is Something called "Brook" ?? How does a fish acquire this disease?? and how can somebody treat it?
I have a blue tang and a couple yellow tangs in my tank, a mandarin and a royal gramma, will these be ok?? They seem to be ok now. I just bought something called Melafix that I see is reef safe and somebody told me it works well.
Any Help or Comments ??

 

[beth]

The clowns had clownfish disease, which is actually brooklynella. This is a highly contagious disease which is mostly seen in clownfish, but can be [passed to other fish. Keep a close eye on your fish.
Take a look at the clowns with brooklynella in the Diseased Fish Thread.
The treatment is formalin bathes. The procedure is outlined in the FAQ Thread.

 

[tbrod]

Beth, does it spread quickly?? or can it loom around for a while, my clowns are now dead and the other fish all look ok, I have alot of live rock in my tank and corals, It would be almost impossible to pull one of the tangs out if it got sick until it was deathly ill and probably would be then too late to treat. I am guessing there is no way to treat the tank to assure the others will be fine. In your opinion, if my fish make the next couple days without looking and acting sick, do you think they are out of the woods. ??

 

[beth]

It is passed from fish contact to fish contact. Wait 2 wks and see. If all is clear, I'd say you are lucky. It is not likely that your clowns actually made contact with the other fish, so you are likely ok.
Avoid the store where you got the clowns, however.